


Wraith

by KGoblin



Category: DCU
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, BAMF Harleen Quinzel, BAMF Raven, Batfamily (DCU), Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Consensual Possession, Dimension Travel, F/F, Implied/Referenced Sex, Love at First Sight, Magical Accidents, Memory Loss, Mental Health Issues, Mental Institutions, Meta knowledge, POV Female Character, POV First Person, Pamela Isley Loves Harleen Quinzel, Past Joker (DCU)/Harleen Quinzel, Reformed Harleen Quinzel, Reformed Joker, Reformed Pamela Isley, Secret Identity, Strong Female Characters, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:06:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23963590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KGoblin/pseuds/KGoblin
Summary: Charlotte Tremaine always wanted to be a superhero. Sometimes we get what we ask for.
Relationships: Jinx/Raven (DCU), Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel
Kudos: 10





	Wraith

I'm new to the crime fighting scene.

I always wanted to do it, growing up. I'd read all the comics I could find, about the X-Men, the Avengers, the Justice League. If it featured a superhero, I was all over it. I idolized them, imagining what I could do if I had superpowers just like my heroes. I think the power I wanted most was the power of flight. I wanted people to look at me like they did at Superman, or Thor. I wanted to be godlike.

Wishes like that didn't really lend themselves to making me a good fighter. When I was eighteen, I was in a sewing club in high school. Made my own costume in secret, and it looked absolutely perfect. I decided that maybe I could be a superhero in real life. I went out to try it and woke up in a hospital with a concussion and six broken ribs. My mom was so freaked out she wasn't even mad at me, and my dad just looked disappointed.

So I started reading, and joined the school's marksmanship club once I recovered. My parents got rid of my costume while I was in the hospital, which was upsetting, but a costume doesn't make a hero. I think if I didn't find that old cabin on a hike in the woods, I probably would have gone out again, in some new outfit with a mask, and gotten myself killed, or worse.

But that's not what happened, so let's not dwell on it.

The cabin I found was decrepit, but seemed structurally sound. I told my parents about it, thinking I might turn it into my own personal Batcave or something. They thought it might be a good opportunity to get me some practical skills, since I wasn't the most prepared person for adulthood. They helped me figure out how to find whoever owned the place, which turned out to be this old woman being cared for in a nursing home. We went to talk to her about the cabin.

As it happens, her granddaughter was visiting when we arrived. My parents discussed the whole cabin thing with the old lady while I stuttered through an introduction to this girl. She was only a year or two older than me, but she looked like She-Hulk, and her smile was more dazzling than- well, Dazzler. Her name was Judy, and I was in love already.

We hit it off surprisingly well, considering how little I actually managed to say. She gave me her number, and it took me about two weeks to work up the courage to message her with more than a 'hello'. We kept texting all through the month it took for her family to find the deed to the land the cabin was on. When my parents finally got it in our possession, I had the brilliant idea to ask Judy for help in fixing the place up. Best idea I ever had!

Judy went to a different school further in the city, and was part of their construction club. She helped me figure out what we needed to repair the cabin, and I mostly cleaned up the place while she got everything in order. Our parents both agreed to pay for what was need, within reason, and Judy could bring tools from her school, so all we needed to do was start. Therein lies the rub.

I am not a physically adept person. Judy had to teach me how to use every single tool, and I was too clumsy for most of them. Power tools helped, and I could use a paint brush reasonably well, but the bulk of the work ended up in Judy's hands. She said she didn't mind, but I felt guilty for weeks.

Most of the prep work was done when we found the door to the basement, and that's where my crime fighting dreams came true.

The basement was absolutely covered in papers, books, tomes, and insane scrawls on basically every surface. In the center of the floor was something out of one of those darker comics, or some shitty 80s horror movie: a magic circle, carefully drawn in chalk, with candles arranged around it with exacting precision. Being an idiot, I stepped right into it.

Everything went white.

\-----

When I awoke, I wasn't in the cabin anymore. I was in a hospital bed, and for a moment I was terrified. Then I looked around, and found out what it's like to be stunned into stupidity. Fucking Batman was by the window, and through it I could see the skyline of Gotham City, Wayne Enterprises tower and all. It only got worse from there.

I scrambled out of the bed, and was about to try collecting myself when I realized two more horrifying things: I could see right through my form, and it wasn't my body I'd left behind in the hospital bed. Judy looked so peaceful, it was like she'd simply gone to sleep. I ruined that by screaming.

Judy sat up with a start, looking around in shock. She saw me and her eyes went wide.

"Charlotte?" she asked, and for the first time I saw her look scared.

"You're awake," fucking Batman said from the window. (I still didn't believe it was really him. I thought it was all a nightmare at the time.) "You're lucky I found you or you might have been hurt."

"Who are you?" Judy asked, looking from him to me and back again, "Why is Charlotte see through? What happened?" Batman looked over to me and I discovered that he didn't even see me, and probably hadn't heard the scream I'd let loose.

"Do you see someone there?" Fucking Batman asked, turning back to Judy.

"Yeah, my girlfriend is right there," Judy replied, surprisingly level headed (and I totally missed what she had said here due to the everything that was happening), "Why is she see through?"

"Miss, I don't see anyone there," the Bat said, and I felt like screaming again.

"She's standing right in front of us," Judy insisted, "Her shirt even has your stupid mask on it, how can you not see her?" That got Batman's attention.

"You said you don't know who I am," he said, "and yet you're seeing an invisible person with my mask on a shirt?"

I don't really remember much past this point for a few hours, because I had what was definitely the worst anxiety attack in my life. I remember Judy trying to help me, and at some point Batman left. I was finally starting to calm down when he returned with Raven, which nearly sent me into another anxiety attack.

"You were right, Batman," Raven said, looking first to Judy and then, surprisingly, to me, "This girl is definitely possessed. But I don't believe it's a demon doing the possessing here."

"What are you talking about?" Judy asked, standing up and putting a hand protectively in front of me, "No one's possessed here. Something is wrong with Charlotte, that's all."

"What are your names?" Raven asked, crossing her arms, "You and your ghostly friend."

"I'm Judith Colton," Judy said, "This is my _girlfriend_ , Charlotte Tremaine. Where are we, anyway?" That time I actually heard what Judy had called me, and I'm embarrassed to say I fainted.


End file.
